Kate NV

A career shape-shifter, Kate NV is as comfortable singing and playing guitar in the Russian post-punk band Glintshake as she is composing soft, porous art-pop. Born Ekaterina Yuryevna Shilonosova in 1988 in Kazan, she formed Glintshake in 2012 after moving to Moscow. In contrast to that band’s abrasive edges and political ire, she mined the chiming serenity of Japanese city pop for her debut solo album as Kate NV, 2016’s Binasu. Shilonosova’s mostly instrumental 2018 follow-up, для FOR, drifted into ambient synthscapes, only for 2020’s Room for the Moon to reinvent her sound once more. This time she was inspired by surreal ’80s pop from Japan and the Soviet Union alike, singing in both Russian and English over percolating rhythms and childlike melodies. Shilonosova also lent her voice to a track from Air member Nicolas Godin’s guest-laden 2020 album Concrete and Glass, confirming her airy blend of charisma and nostalgia.